[Hiring] Client Relationship Director @Cayuse

Role Description

Cayuse is seeking a Client Relationship Director to lead strategic enterprise account relationships across our client base. This high-impact, player-coach role owns a portfolio of high-value accounts and leads two Strategic Account Managers. The Client Relationship Director is the customer's ultimate advocate and strategic advisor, guiding clients through platform optimization, expansion, and multi-year adoption lifecycles while protecting and growing retention (GRR/NRR).

The ideal candidate is an executive-level relationship builder who can influence C-suite stakeholders, orchestrate a broad internal matrix, and coach a small team to deliver measurable client outcomes. This role requires equal parts strategic thinking, commercial discipline, and hands-on leadership.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Account & Relationship Governance
  • Serve as the primary strategic point of contact for a portfolio of high-value enterprise accounts, building trusted relationships with executive sponsors in Enterprise Research Administration.
  • Lead high-profile Customer Business Reviews (CBRs), Steering Committees, and multi-year technology roadmap sessions focused on business outcomes and ROI.
  • Guide enterprise customers through platform and landscape updates, ensuring their corporate strategy maps to Cayuse's product roadmap.
  • Act as a player-coach: lead and develop two Strategic Account Managers while maintaining a high-value book of business.
• Value Realization & Platform Adoption
  • Partner with client business units post-implementation to maximize feature adoption and subscription value.
  • Advise clients on operational readiness, change management, and governance best practices to sustain high user engagement.
  • Establish, track, and interpret adoption and engagement metrics to address customer friction points proactively.
• Commercial Growth & Risk Mitigation
  • Own the ongoing strategy for protecting the active client base, mitigating customer health risks, and managing Business-at-Risk (BAR) accounts.
  • Coach the two Strategic Account Managers to identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities and build compelling business cases for license expansion.
  • Oversee contract lifecycle alignment, partnering with the Strategic Account Managers to secure Net Retention Rate (NRR) milestones and provide reliable forecasts to leadership.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Mobilize and orchestrate teams across Product Management, Delivery Consultants, Customer Success Managers, and Elite Support to resolve escalations.
  • Capture client feedback, telemetry, and capability gaps and surface them to Product and Engineering to influence the roadmap.
  • Partner with Revenue Operations to maintain accurate CRM data, pipeline health, and reporting.

Qualifications

• 7–10+ years of experience in enterprise software sales, customer success, strategic client delivery, or key account management.
• 3–5+ years leading direct or cross-functional, highly matrixed enterprise account teams, including coaching and developing account managers.
• Proven experience steering Tier 1 SaaS/cloud deployments (e.g., enterprise research administration, ERP, HCM, SCM, or financial suites).
• Demonstrated track record of meeting or exceeding retention (GRR/NRR) and expansion targets.
• Advanced executive presence, with masterful negotiation, critical thinking, and communication skills and a record of influencing C-suite decisions under pressure.
• Understanding of global IT ecosystems, implementation lifecycles, global system integrators (SIs), and enterprise governance models.
• Financial data literacy: comfort with SaaS financial metrics, forecasting, data analytics, and performance KPIs.
• Experience selling into higher education, healthcare, research organizations, or similarly complex enterprise environments strongly preferred.
• Willingness to travel 30–50% for customer on-sites and executive reviews.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where priorities, opportunities, and resource needs can shift.
• Proficiency with CRM platforms (Salesforce preferred) and familiarity with modern sales methodologies (e.g., MEDDPICC, Challenger, GAP Selling).
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline; MBA or equivalent advanced degree highly preferred.
• Certifications such as MEDDPICC, Challenger, GAP Selling, PMP, or Workday Deployment Methodologies are a major asset.

How You'll Be Measured

• Gross and net revenue retention: GRR and NRR across your portfolio and the two-person Strategic Account Manager team, against quarterly and annual targets.
• Expansion: size, quality, and velocity of the cross-sell and upsell pipeline, including forecast accuracy.
• Risk management: early identification and resolution of Business-at-Risk accounts.
• Value realization: adoption and engagement KPIs, plus client satisfaction (NPS and CSAT).
• Executive engagement: depth of C-suite relationship coverage and quality of CBRs and Steering Committees.
• Team leadership: performance, development, and retention of the Strategic Account Managers.
• Cross-functional impact: effectiveness in resolving escalations and the quality of client feedback surfaced to Product.

Benefits

• Competitive Medical Benefits (PPO + HSA available)
• Vision, Dental, Short-Term Disability fully covered by Cayuse
• Unlimited PTO + Holidays + Flexible Work Schedule
• Remote Work Stipend
• Equal Paid Parental Leave
• 401k with Employer Matching
• Quarterly Wellness Reimbursement
• Remote Work Environment, supporting the Ultimate Employee Experience